It's always been a problem in TES games that it's easy to totally break your character and make it so weak that you won't be very good at anything. It does seem harder in Skyrim, though--I've been focusing largely on non-combat skills (smithing, enchanting, etc) and I still do pretty well out in the wild, especially when I manage a 15x dual dagger backstab on something. Nearly one-shot a dragon that way :D
